McCallie School senior lineman Cyrus Salazar is photographed on the field on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn.Sometimes when he’s alone and making his way to his dorm room across the pristine McCallie School campus, where the closest thing to litter are fall leaves fluttering onto the grass, Cyrus Salazar will stop and take in the moment. And he will marvel at how he wound up here.
Having a nomadic childhood that took him from California to Las Vegas and New Mexico and eventually Chattanooga – and watching two older brothers choose paths in life that brought heartache to the family – Cyrus doesn’t want to take his current opportunities for granted.
“More times than I can count, I’ve just sort of stopped to look around,” said Cyrus, a 6-foot-1, 282-pound senior offensive guard for the Blue Tornado. “Everything about this place is different than anything I’ve known, from the teachers and the education, to the facilities and coaches we have. I’ve made it a mission to appreciate what I’ve already gotten from this school.
“When you’ve come from where I did, experienced some of the things I have, this really means everything.”
Money and the material things that come with it were scarce for the Salazar family, which included Cyrus’ mom, Kuuipo, two brothers and three sisters. It was shortly after the family settled in just outside of Roswell, N.M., that the brothers began hanging out with the type of friends that helped them find trouble all too easily.